The Question #12, O'Neill era
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scans_dailyBack at the golden old days of 2010, kingrockwell started a delicious series of posts about everyone's (?) favourite faceless vigilante. While reading those posts, I remembered how much I absolutely LOVED the O'Neil days back when I was a wee little lad. So I waited with eager anticipation for each and every post of that series, especially when he started to tackle the 80's incarnation of Vic Sage, a.k.a. The Question.
I don't really know what happened to our good poster, and I'm not sure if he chose to discontinue his series. However, I'll just assume they both took a temporary hiatus and, to keep the love for Vic Sage flowing (nothing personal, Renée!), I'm going to post two issues from the O'Neil run that can kind of stand-alone and will not, I hope, hamperkingrockwell's original idea of making longer posts with overarching themes.
First issue I can think of is #12, “Poisoned Ground”, published in January 1988. 3 pages and some pieces (9 excerpts overall) from 27 pages, mods.
It starts off with an obese man knocking on another guy’s door and asking for candy and ice-cream. The resident says Halloween is the next day and gets shot. Then the overweight killer goes in the house and devours all the ice-cream in the fridge. That, by the way, is his M.O.: asking if the soon-to-be-murdered person has something sweet to eat, then killing him.
Meanwhile, Vic and Myra meet at a motel “eighty miles outside the city limits” — one that, according to Vic, gives a whole new meaning to sleaze. He asks her why they met in such a secluded place, and she obliges:
(She tells him why. I'm sorry I can't. Not untilkingrockwell posts about Myra's exploits).
"It's stickier"! Oh Vic, you smooth-talker, you!
(Does anyone else think Cowan’s Vic is “disgustingly attractive”? Yeah, me neither).
After everything said and done, Vic asks Myra a couple of questions (heh!) and then leaves. He listens to the police band and finds out there's been a murder in Parson Acres, one of the few good parts left in Hub City. So, he decides to have a peek:
Not funny at all to Vic, who says "Baby's back in town". Yep, Baby Gun, the same guy that shot him all the way back in issue #1. Now, to find who hired him and what for. Meanwhile, Gun has made his second victim, one Jerry Bolger.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, but before meeting with the $20-dollar cop, Vic passes a house and remarks that it belongs to Pete Carstairs, the guy who built Parson Acres. There's a van parked right in front of Carstairs' house, but that doesn't seem important to our reporter - not now, at least.
Vic goes back to TV and reports on both murders:
Sex is a theme in this issue, apparently.
So Sage looks at the tapes of Pete Carstairs announcing the opening of Parsons' Acres three years before. It was built for blue collar workers, and Carstairs invested every cent he had in the venture. Vic decides to go as The Question (finally) after Colonel Rory, who does the security for Carstairs. He kills Rory's dog and beats the Colonel, but not after taking some whoopass from both:
There IS an answer:
Vic takes some of the stuff for Tot to analyze. It turns out it's dioxin, which is lethal and is poisoning all of Parson Acres residents.
Things start to fall into place now. Channing - the first murdered man - and Bolger worked for a company that dumped the waste on what became Parson Acres. Vic tells Myra about what happened so the mayor can take some action - but, of course, he won't. So Sage turns to the power of the media and tells the whole story on his show, heavily stressing the bottom line: all residents MUST leave Parson Acres.
So, the residents are safe, Vic did a great job, and we have a happy ending, right? Of course not! This is an 80's comic book we're talking about.
Determined not to let any loose threads hang on, Vic goes after Carstairs and finds out he's dead. The killer's not Baby Gun. Instead, it's the poison in the earth Carstairs swallowed. But Baby Gun is there, having some ice-cream:
Can you guess what the funny taste is?
Gun passes out, Vic carries him to hospital but isn't sure he'll make it, and isn't even sure he wants to make it. Oh, the cheerful 80's! I'm sure Gun survives, though. Future editions give us some hints that he made it.
That wraps up the first issue I wanted to post about O'Neil's The Question. Not one of the strongest, but nevertheless an interesting and intriguing story. That's more than I can say about the next one, in which O'Neil manages to combine my two favourite characters and come out with a disappointing result. I'll try to post it this week.
Meanwhile, give me your thoughts on this one, ok?
kingrockwell started a delicious series of posts about everyone's (?) favourite faceless vigilante. While reading those posts, I remembered how much I absolutely LOVED the O'Neil days back when I was a wee little lad. So I waited with eager anticipation for each and every post of that series, especially when he started to tackle the 80's incarnation of Vic Sage, a.k.a. The Question.I don't really know what happened to our good poster, and I'm not sure if he chose to discontinue his series. However, I'll just assume they both took a temporary hiatus and, to keep the love for Vic Sage flowing (nothing personal, Renée!), I'm going to post two issues from the O'Neil run that can kind of stand-alone and will not, I hope, hamper
kingrockwell's original idea of making longer posts with overarching themes.First issue I can think of is #12, “Poisoned Ground”, published in January 1988. 3 pages and some pieces (9 excerpts overall) from 27 pages, mods.
It starts off with an obese man knocking on another guy’s door and asking for candy and ice-cream. The resident says Halloween is the next day and gets shot. Then the overweight killer goes in the house and devours all the ice-cream in the fridge. That, by the way, is his M.O.: asking if the soon-to-be-murdered person has something sweet to eat, then killing him.
Meanwhile, Vic and Myra meet at a motel “eighty miles outside the city limits” — one that, according to Vic, gives a whole new meaning to sleaze. He asks her why they met in such a secluded place, and she obliges:
(She tells him why. I'm sorry I can't. Not until
kingrockwell posts about Myra's exploits)."It's stickier"! Oh Vic, you smooth-talker, you!
(Does anyone else think Cowan’s Vic is “disgustingly attractive”? Yeah, me neither).
After everything said and done, Vic asks Myra a couple of questions (heh!) and then leaves. He listens to the police band and finds out there's been a murder in Parson Acres, one of the few good parts left in Hub City. So, he decides to have a peek:
Not funny at all to Vic, who says "Baby's back in town". Yep, Baby Gun, the same guy that shot him all the way back in issue #1. Now, to find who hired him and what for. Meanwhile, Gun has made his second victim, one Jerry Bolger.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, but before meeting with the $20-dollar cop, Vic passes a house and remarks that it belongs to Pete Carstairs, the guy who built Parson Acres. There's a van parked right in front of Carstairs' house, but that doesn't seem important to our reporter - not now, at least.
Vic goes back to TV and reports on both murders:
Sex is a theme in this issue, apparently.
So Sage looks at the tapes of Pete Carstairs announcing the opening of Parsons' Acres three years before. It was built for blue collar workers, and Carstairs invested every cent he had in the venture. Vic decides to go as The Question (finally) after Colonel Rory, who does the security for Carstairs. He kills Rory's dog and beats the Colonel, but not after taking some whoopass from both:
There IS an answer:
Vic takes some of the stuff for Tot to analyze. It turns out it's dioxin, which is lethal and is poisoning all of Parson Acres residents.
Things start to fall into place now. Channing - the first murdered man - and Bolger worked for a company that dumped the waste on what became Parson Acres. Vic tells Myra about what happened so the mayor can take some action - but, of course, he won't. So Sage turns to the power of the media and tells the whole story on his show, heavily stressing the bottom line: all residents MUST leave Parson Acres.
So, the residents are safe, Vic did a great job, and we have a happy ending, right? Of course not! This is an 80's comic book we're talking about.
Determined not to let any loose threads hang on, Vic goes after Carstairs and finds out he's dead. The killer's not Baby Gun. Instead, it's the poison in the earth Carstairs swallowed. But Baby Gun is there, having some ice-cream:
Can you guess what the funny taste is?
Gun passes out, Vic carries him to hospital but isn't sure he'll make it, and isn't even sure he wants to make it. Oh, the cheerful 80's! I'm sure Gun survives, though. Future editions give us some hints that he made it.
That wraps up the first issue I wanted to post about O'Neil's The Question. Not one of the strongest, but nevertheless an interesting and intriguing story. That's more than I can say about the next one, in which O'Neil manages to combine my two favourite characters and come out with a disappointing result. I'll try to post it this week.
Meanwhile, give me your thoughts on this one, ok?
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